CEBU’S weather station in Mactan island has updated equipment to ensure more accurate and reliable forecasts.
A P100 million weather surveillance doppler radar monitors precipitation areas, rain volume and wind, and can directly send the information online, said engineer Alfredo Quiblat, senior weather observer of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pag-asa Mactan).
He said they are waiting for Manila personnel to install the radar, which is the only one in the Visayas. Four units were installed in Luzon.
A P200,000 Automatic Weather Station bought in June is alread installed outside the weather station.
The equipment records rain volume, temperature and wind pressure every hour. Data is sent to the weather station’s central office in Manila.
Pag-asa Mactan also has an automatic and manual rain water gauge that measures rainfall within a 50- kilometer radius. These guages were installed in Bantayan and Camotes Islands in north Cebu.
Quiblat suggested setting up guages in Cebu City as well.
Meanwhile, Cebu City Councilor Noel Wenceslao has proposed to make it a requirement for all building owners, and management of private and public hospitals in the city to form their own disaster response teams.
His draft ordinance, taken up in the City Council’s July 27 session, is under study.
Another Cebu City agency, Coastal Management Board (CMB) has requested Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to buy fish nets and styrofoam floaters to be installed at the mouth of rivers and creeks in 16 coastal barangays in the city to trap garbage from going into the sea.
The device was already tested at the mouth of the river in barangay Ermita..
Sanitation workers on a raft of empty water drums would then collect the garbage in the fish net daily. /With Correspondent Edison Delos Angeles